While many people (rightfully) acknowledge the Melvins as an early influence on the style, and while they have one of the dumbest names I've ever heard of from a metal band, everyone still agrees that New Orleans natives Eyehategod are one of the biggest pioneers of the incredibly dirty, dank sound we now know as sludge metal (along with their fellow citymates Crowbar, of course), and their debut “In The Name of Suffering” is pretty much universally considered to be the first true modern example of that sound on record, what with the way the band took the crushing, overbearing heaviness, incredibly dark, dread-laden moods, and agonizingly slow, crawling tempos of doom metal, and combined that with the occasional, sudden burst of hardcore punk-style speed, helping to patent what’s become known as the "NOLA" sound of metal (and no, while awesome, Down didn't do it first either... you n00b).

Anyway, at any rate, "In The Name" is like drinking the darkest, sludgiest coffee that's ever been brewed (with the occasional forays into brisker tempos representing the caffeine kick), and, while not really anywhere near what I'd call a "fun" record to listen to, the record still makes an impact as a memorable listen, with its combination of genre trailblazing, Mike Williams' raspy, tortured shouting, and the way that the constant, distressing guitar squeals resemble a big ol' hog being slaughtered, ensuring that The Big Easy will never be able to take things quite so "easy" ever again.

In addition to "Rust in Peace", 1990 thrash also saw the releases of records like Sadus's "Swallowed in Black", Suicidal Tendencies' "Lights...Camera...Revolution!", Vio-lence's "Oppressing the Masses", Kreator's "Coma of Souls" (a record that I've warmed up to over the years, so no need to gripe at me about it anymore, mehvenant & Habacuck), Forbidden's "Twisted Into Form", Death Angel's "Act III", Testament's "Souls of Black", Anthrax's "Persistence of Time", and my favorite effort from Slayer, "Seasons In The Abyss", as all these records represent one of the greatest years in the history of the genre, and one of the LAST great ones as well, as, pretty much the rest of the old-school bands in the genre, Big 4 and all, would see a sea change about to start taking place very, VERY soon. It wasn't the only sign of the turn of the decade though, as the year also, appropriately enough, saw one of the last "hurrays" for 80's-style glam metal with Poison's "Flesh and Blood", the beginning of a period of decline for Iron Maiden, THE 80's metal band, with the rather meh "No Prayer For the Dying" (and Bruce Dickinson's lousy solo debut "Tattooed Millionaire" didn't do him any favors either), along with the closest thing to the "official" end of a major movement in 80's metal, that being the 1st wave of black metal, as Celtic Frost "Vanity/Nemesis", while still a step back in the right direction considering their disastrous previous release (which was also representative of another 80's metal movement, but a much worse one), was still a fairly underwhelming record to break up on for a decade and a half, while Bathory full-on embraced their Viking era with the great "Hammerheart", although both bands already left a rich legacy behind for the 2nd Wave to soon blow up with in a couple of years.

Anyway, as always, there was also a number of significant miscellaneous releases this year, including Blind Guardian's "Tales From the Twilight World", Danzig's "Danzig II", Queensrÿche's "Empire", Napalm Death's move into death/grind with "Harmony Corruption", and a lot of notable debuts with Demolition Hammer's "Tortured Existence", Exhorder's "Slaughter In the Vatican" (a band that would soon be described as the underground answer to Pantera), Iced Earth's self-titled, and Alice in Chains's "Facelift", which lay at the intersection between metal and the burgeoning grunge movement that was on the cusp of bursting out of Seattle and taking over the world. And finally, besides "Left Hand Path", the golden age of death metal continued strong this year with the release of Carnage's "Dark Recollections" (a record that, if there were any justice in the metal world, would get the credit everyone gives to LHP as the ACTUAL first classic Swedeath record), Obituary's "Cause of Death", Death's "Spiritual Healing", an intermediate steeping stone inbetween their relatively straightforward, brutal 80's records, and the far more technical classics that would define them for the rest of the decade, Nocturnus's early tech death classic "The Key", and a couple more notable debuts like Deicide's self-titled, as well as "Eaten Back to Life", the first record from a band you've probably heard of called Cannibal Corpse, and all of this richness in the genre would grow even stronger and result in the greatest year in the history of the style, very, VERY soon…

While many people (rightfully) acknowledge the Melvins as an early influence on the style, and while they have one of the dumbest names I've ever heard of from a metal band,

First of all, Melvins is a fine name for a band that don't give a fuck, Stu.

It's hard for me to pinpoint the Melvins to any particular style as their niche seemed tucked pretty equally in the cracks between the feral indie-rock/metal of Butthole Surfers, the emerging grunge scene, and a healthy dose of wiggy pastiche which was closeer to the whims of Ween and Mr. Bungle than most metal of the time. It's interesting that their sludge marathon, Lysol, has a cover from Flipper, or the band which became hardcore pariahs for insisting on playing their punk rock at a fraction of the speed of their peers.

But, yes, I agree on the welcomed pitiful demise of hair metal around this time. Louder Than Love, Mother's Milk, In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up, Ritual de la Habitual, The Real Thing were all permeating the mainstream, cluing the inert masses to more liberating alternatives. The fact that none of these albums neatly fall into specific genres was a big part of the promise.

Pleased to see the New Orleans scene mentioned, I sometimes wonder how relevant it still is in other parts of the world. The Thomas brothers (Exhorder/Floodgate) went to my (Catholic) high school. Safe to say songs like Slaughter in the Vatican and Anal Lust aren't getting mentioned in the alumni newsletter.
Just so happens that Exhorder is in the middle of one of their periodic reunions. New album coming later this month----

Never knew the guys from Eyehategod, although they were standing behind me at an Ace Frehley show back in '08.

I'm kind of jumping ahead of your timeline here, but you might want to check out Soilent Green if you're not familiar with them.

I'm obviously a big fan of Rust, buit those two songs are actually some of my least favorite on the record, heh; not that I hate them, mind you, but I've always found the main riff of "Hangar" to be dull, and the second half of the song just feels like an excuse for some crazy solos (as opposed to being well-integrated into the core of the songwriting, like with "Five Magics"), and Dave's vocals get on my nerves more than usual on "Tornado". They're both still decent at least, just lesser than the other songs on the album, which I would probably rank in order of preference as:

I'm a Rush fan, so I have no issues with Dave's vocals No, but seriously, I guess if one's a Megadeth fan, one gets used to Mustaine's vocal limitations. I think he does a good job in terms of how to use his voice in benefit of his music; and I just love the guitars in "Tornado". For what it's worth, my ranking is these, but most of them are pretty close.